The Ministry of Health yesterday set up a team of investigators to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of baby Kimorah Leslie at the KHMH on Saturday. Headed by Director of Health Services Dr. Jorge Polanco, the team must "expeditiously determine if any breaches of contract, code of ethics, policies and protocols or negligence were contributory factors to the death." Dr. Polanco today told us that the investigation is now on its way.
Dr. Jorge Polanco,
"The investigation has begun. Yesterday we visited Karl Heusner and we spoke to the CEO. It's a team of us from the Ministry of Health in Belmopan. The bottomline is that to every death, or to every case, there is a concern and questions. Of course it is very logical to look into it and see exactly what is the truth behind that. What we can say is that indeed this happened. This is in relation to the neurological services provided at the KHMH. We have been looking into it but of course we started yesterday and it will not be perhaps until maybe the end of next week that we have something very tangible and a clear picture and a clearer idea as to what is the real truth behind all this.
We will be looking at the history of the case, the conditions that were present as it concerned the availability of services for this child, in this case neurosurgical services, and also the entire situation because everybody is aware and you are aware for sure that there was some degree of controversy, administratively, I would say, within the healthcare providers and the administration of Karl Heusner which the administrative issues of this nature really are not unique to Karl Heusner. Administrative contradictions, we have them everywhere and it's a matter of improving the services.
What will happen will be determined by what the findings are. So depending on what we find, that will indeed gear us and lead us as to what measures should be put in place."
Polanco says the ministry of health and the KHMH are looking at bringing in a neurosurgeon from outside, specifically from the U.K. to work on existing cases while the situation is normalized.
